Christmas

Christmas (from the Old English Cristes maesse, "Christ's mass"), is very much the most important festival in England, as in Wales and America, celebrated on December 25 to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. Unlike Easter, the date of Christmas was fixed almost 1600 years ago and has never changed despite the many changes to calendars throughout the last millennium.

The traditional day of fairs and sporting events, Boxing Day, the 26^th.

The word "Xmas" is sometimes used instead of Christmas. Thought by many Britons to be a modern Americanism, this name was actually used in Greece in the early Christian church where X is the first letter of Christ's name and this was used as a holy symbol.

In the Roman world, Saturnalia (December 17) was the major winter festi­val - a time of merrymaking and the exchange of gifts. This pagan Roman festival marked the "birthday of the unconquered sun" to celebrate the winter solstice, when the days again begin to lengthen and the sun begins to climb higher in the sky.

The traditional customs connected with Christmas have consequently devel­oped from several sources. On the Roman New Year (January 1), houses were dec­orated with greenery and lights, and gifts were given to children and the poor. Fires and lights, symbols of warmth and lasting life, have always been associated with the winter festival, both pagan and Christian.

The Christmas Tree, usually a fir, decorated with lights and ornaments became central to Christmas festivities. The use of evergreen trees, wreaths, and garlands as a symbol of eternal life was an ancient custom of the Egyptians, Chi­nese, and Hebrews. Tree worship, common among the pa­gan Europeans, survived after their conversion to Christi­anity in the Scandinavian customs of decorating the house and barn with evergreens to scare away the devil and of setting up a tree for the birds during Christmastime.

Each year Norway donates a Norwegian Spruce tree of about 25m height to England and it is placed in Trafalgar Square, London, with a ceremony including a children's choir singing carols.

The other two major plant decorations are holly and mistletoe. Holly is an evergreen tree with sharply pointed, glossy leaves and bright red berries, used in making Christmas wreaths and other decorations. Early Christians decorated their churches with holly at Christmas time. They called it the holy tree and the word "holly" may have come from this name.

The custom of decorat­ing homes with mistletoe probably came from its use as a ceremonial plant by pagans. Today most British homes will strategically place a sprig of mistletoe so that a person standing under it may be kissed and they traditionally mustn't object. Hats with a mistletoe dec­oration are popular accessories for Christmas parties.

Those families that have an open fireplace or wood-burning stove, burn a Yule log to maintain an extremely old tradition. The log is a piece of the trunk of any tree, and an unburned part of it was kept to light the next year's log. It was once believed that the unburned wood had magical powers and that bad luck would follow if the Yule log fire went out.

Britain has traditionally extended Christmas into a 12-day holiday "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and the superstition that all decorations must be taken down on Twelfth Night (January 5^th). Many British people take the 24^th of December to the 2^nd of January as holiday leave and the business world finds this period such a "dead season" that many companies in recent years have indeed encouraged their employees to take such a break, given them extra annual holiday and closed down for the whole period.

It is thought that the turkey given by Scrooge to Tiny Tim in Dicken's novel "A Christmas Carol" was instrumental in transmuting the "Traditional Bird at Christ­mas" and the centrepiece of the Christmas Dinner from goose to turkey, which had been introduced from America and still fashionable and a relative novelty in Dick­ens' time. The turkey is a most practical bird given the quantity of meat on even a medium-sized bird that will feed a large family gathering but there has been a fashionable tendency in recent years to restore the goose as the roast fowl of choice. Also, the size of a commercially-farmed turkey, (5-12 kg.) has meant that turkey meat is left over for many more meals and most Britons roll their eyes at the men­tion of turkey sandwiches, turkey curry, sweet and sour turkey, etc. The term "cold turkey" is now used to describe the pain of drug rehabilitation.

Other traditional Christmas dishes include mincemeat pies, Christmas pudding and Christ­mas cake.

During Christmas afternoon, after Christmas dinner, at 15.00, many British peo­ple watch Queen Elizabeth II give her annual speech on television. Her notorious "Annus Horribilis" quote was made in 1992 dur­ing one such Queen's Speech in a year when one of her children was divorced and two daughters- in-law had very widely publicised adulterous af­fairs. And then part of Windsor Castle burned down.

In the 3-4 weeks leading up to Christmas, Christmas Cards must be sent from everyone to everyone. The postal service has to deal with over a billion additional items during De­cember and has always suffered from logistical nightmares at this time of year.

Another essential element of the season is the Christmas carol. The word "car­ol" came from an old French word that referred to a ring dance accompanied by song. Carols were originally performed on several occasions during the year but by the 1600's, carols involved singing only, and Christmas had become the primary time for these songs.

Christmas is now more regarded as the festival of the family and of children, and presents are ex­changed in many countries under the name of Fa­ther Christmas, Saint Nicholas or Santa Claus. This brings an interesting fact to bear - that Santa Claus in his current form was invented by the marketing department of the Coca-Cola Corporation in the late 19^th century, drawing upon the Celtic (or earlier) Fa­ther Christmas native to Britain, Grandfather Frost of eastern Europe, Saint Nicholas in his German iden­tity (although also the patron saint of Russia), and other personifications of the winter solstice festivals.